"Before we start production on a car, it's already finished" – North American 944 Turbo Advertisement

The following 1986 print advertisement helped to articulate the relationship between the successful 924 GTP Le Mans (referred to as 944 GTP) and the 944 Turbo, which shared many components with the Le Mans racer.

The article also helps to illustrates the fact that the GTP (and the production 944 series based off of it) are competent to outperform cars with significantly larger engines, a hallmark characteristic of the 4-cylinder performance of the 944 Turbo (comparable to v8 engined vehicles).

The article reads:

The car on the left is the 944 GTP.

In 1981, we entered it in the Twenty-Four Hours of Le Mans where it competed against cars with engines more than twice the size of its own in-line four.

Cars which no amount of modification could turn into legal production automobiles.

Skeptics doubted it would finish, let alone place in the top ten. It was, after all, a David among scores of Goliaths.

Nevertheless, it came in an astonishing seventh overall. And spent less time in the pits than any other car in the race.

It was this car’s superb racing performance that led, in 1982, to the introduction of the production 944. A car which our engineers, heedless of the praise given their initial design, have continued to scrutinize, to amend, to push, to mold into the car on the right.

The 944 Turbo

A car with a top speed of 152 mph, 217 horsepower, and the ability to accelerate from 0 to 60 in just 6.1 seconds.

A car which, in certified Showroom Stock events around the country, still regularly competes against machines with engines twice the size of its own. And which, even six years later, still bears a remarkable resemblance to the Le Mans prototype to which it owes much of its original technology.

For us, competition provides a constant source of challenge and new ideas. And we’ll continue to race Porsches for as long as we continue to build Porsches.

Not because we feel it’s necessary to chalk up more wins than we already have.

But because when we introduce a performance car, we like to be sure it’s going to perform.

The printed advertisement can be viewed below.

“Before we start production on a car, it’s already finished” – North American 944 Turbo Advertisement

[*] This print advertisement is copyright Dr.Ing.h.c.F.Porsche AG and Porsche Cars North America. All Rights Reserved. It is used solely for educational purposes, and not for profit. It should be not be considered representative of Dr.Ing.h.c.F.Porsche AG of Porsche Cars North America.